


Night Watch

by Iocane



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-15
Updated: 2013-01-15
Packaged: 2017-11-25 16:22:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/640782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iocane/pseuds/Iocane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone watches the city sleep. (Takes place just after Sanctuary)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Night Watch

**Author's Note:**

> Beta: The cool-beyond-words Oran and Marie-France who dragged this story kicking and screaming into a better place. Any remaining errors are entirely mine.
> 
> Spoilers: Sanctuary
> 
> Notes: After watching “Sanctuary” it occurred to me that the individual life scanner thing could have some interesting consequences, if someone could watch the internal movements of everyone in the city, and know just who was who.
> 
> Canon notes: This was written following just one viewing of the series before I had all the details straight. For the sake of this story the full scanners are not a huge power drain and have been online since Sanctuary. It's been pointed out that the scanners don't work the way I've depicted them here, but the dialogue in Sanctuary indicated to me that a specific person could be tracked 'by name' with the new sensors that Chaya brought online while Grodin was working on them.
> 
> Further notes at the end.

Anything inside [] is spoken in Czech.

*

Peter Grodin enjoyed working the night shift when he had the place to himself. The control room was quiet, especially when they had no teams out. He could listen to the city, and watch her inhabitants with a tender eye. The soft-spoken Englishman knew the secret liaisons of more than half the city and would never dream of telling a soul unless necessary. No one else had known that, in spite of a wife on Earth, Gaul had been seeing Jen Runningdeer, one of the biologists. 

Peter didn’t blame him – it could be lonely here, so far from everything. He counted himself lucky. Because of Peter’s watching, he’d been able to offer his condolences to the young woman, claiming Gaul had hinted at the relationship. 

He would report anything he considered dangerous or suspicious, or confirm a person’s location if it was questioned, but beyond that, he simply watched. He knew who seemed to sleep well, and who rose to pace in the middle of the night. He knew who ran laps around the piers at 3 am (Lt. Ford, usually) and who raided the kitchen before breakfast (McKay, or occasionally Simpson.) 

He had watched for weeks as McKay didn't approach Sheppard. McKay would stand at Sheppard's door, sometimes pacing, sometimes stationary. Grodin once watched him stand there for an hour solid, Sheppard's life sign unmoving inside.

He would smile to himself every time people found each other, even if just for a night. They needed that, here, now, in this place. Some of them he expected. Bates and a rather spunky botanist named Kim. A pair of engineers he'd seen flirting back on Earth. Some lingered, departing together in the morning. Some left in a hurry, not long after arriving. Even so, for some people, it was enough. 

In his rooms, Peter had raised a glass in silent toast the night when McKay's light finally entered Sheppard's quarters.

Peter also bore witness to some of the more unpleasant sides of Atlantis. He had watched as Rodney spent three hours in Gaul's room after he died - far longer than it should have taken to clear out his effects. He saw Sheppard personally in the room of every single serviceman who died under him - never delegating the task to anyone. He saw Dr. Zelenka in his labs late at night and had to resist scolding the scientist. He saw Weir in her quarters, unable to sleep. He saw Dr. Beckett's figure move around the infirmary, looking after his patients with a care Peter admired in the other man.

As he watched on this night, he saw a life sign up and about, making its way through the halls towards the control room. 

Knowing who it was, Peter didn't feel the need to blink away the display when the life sign approached the control room. There was one person knew he watched like this.

"We are all lucky you're such a good man." The Czech-accented voice was smiling and Peter found a mug of tea set on the desk beside him, and felt a warm hand on the back of his neck.

"I'm lucky you're such a good man, and willing to bend your own rules," Peter chuckled. He took a sip of the tea, noting it wasn't military issue. Radek's own stash, then. That warmed him as much as the tea itself did.

"[Only for you,]" Radek said slowly, giving the man time to translate, fingers brushing against Peter's neck. Radek was teaching Peter his language. It was going well. Peter had begun on Earth when the pair were still settling into their relationship. 

Peter formed his next words slowly, still unable to think in Czech. "[Dr. Weir is not sleeping.]" He zoomed in on her life reading, showing her not in the bed area, but seated at her desk. She was the only one Peter specifically 'checked in on' to this extent. The two men quietly worried sometimes about their leader. 

"[She has a lot on her mind.]" Radek never indulged in the watching himself, but Peter told him anything Radek asked. In respect of that trust, he seldom asked. He trusted Peter to tell him if anything was relevant. 

"[Did she sleep last night?]" Radek asked, watching Weir’s light move from the chair to what he guessed was a window on the far side of her room. His fingers played at the edge of Peter's neat hairline.

"[For a little while.]" He nodded, bringing up the full city view again. 

"[Your shift is over soon, yes?]"

"[In an hour, yes. When do you start tomorrow?]"

"[Eight in the morning, and I’ll be late finishing.]" There was a silent apology in his voice.

"[A few hours is better than nothing.]" Peter knew of plenty of couples in the city who had far less than a few twilight hours together, he wasn't about to complain. 

“I’ll see you in an hour.” Another light caress, a gentle swirl of air, and Peter saw and felt Radek's departure. He smiled, watching the movements of the city, glad that tonight, people found each other.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm aware that Peter is essentially spying on everyone in the city, and he seems too good a person to do something so underhanded. That's one reason I chose him as the watcher – better him than almost anyone else. He wouldn't use information gained in anything but the best ways, if he uses it at all. I can't even see him reporting someone who clearly isn't sleeping.


End file.
